Monday, April 07, 2008

Vinyl: My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

My Chemical Romance released The Black Parade as a regular double LP and because both the music and artwork are incredible, I had been looking for it. Chuck found it down at Sound Garden and called to see if I wanted him to pick it up or...there was this incredible box set of The Black Parade as well. I just couldn't justify the $50 though and told him to hold off. He didn't though. Instead, he picked it up for me as a thank you for some work I'd done on his site. The $50 price tag crossed a line for me, but, while my heart was in the right place, my head wasn't. Fortunately Chuck's was and now I have what is probably the nicest item in my record collection.

  

The box features two LPs, both on 180 gram audiophile vinyl and two 15 page booklets, all in a slipcase. So what you say? Well, first of all, the booklets fold out and when sat next to each other, form the Black Parade itself. The CD might have the same image, but this one is 12" by 48" and it is hauntingly beautiful...and huge.



Inside, the booklets don't feature a bunch of band photos and lyrics, but a two volume Making of the Black Parade. The first is the story of how the album was conceived and created from the concept to the music to the artwork. The second is track by track commentary from the band about what the album means to them. Both maintain the artistic excellence of the standard artwork, keeping the same antiqued pages and sepia images.






All of this fits into a slipcase that is equally beautiful. The box isn't just a haphazard bunch of extras thrown together to make an expensive package, but a piece of art that provides both style and substance. Is it worth $50? Every penny. (Especially since it was Chuck's pennies.) Oh yeah, they only made 2500 of them.

Labels: ,

4 Comments:

Blogger taotechuck said...

I was ready to smack you when you said you didn't want it. I'm actually really glad I was indebted to you, or else there's no way I could of justified buying what turned out to be the best special-edition package I've ever seen.

2:21 PM  
Blogger taotechuck said...

By the way, I meant "could've." That was just stupid.

2:24 PM  
Blogger Serever said...

hoping you still check this . . .
im in the process of getting a tattoo across my shoulderblades in a black parade style. got the first character done 2 days ago (the one on the front cover of the cd):
http://img219.imageshack.us/i/67331297234922466536472.jpg/
and am looking for a good scan/photos of the big black parade spread from the album inner to plan out the rest of it.
couldnt help me out? :D

5:57 AM  
Blogger bob_vinyl said...

The pictures I have here are the best I have. They're photos of the sleeves in the vinyl box set.

6:08 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home